F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Has Consensus Target Price of $443.00 According to Analysts

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have issued a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $443.00.

FFIV has been the topic of several recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $525.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company set a $500.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $415.00 to $448.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of F5 from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 9th.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $338.34 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $19.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.00, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50 day moving average of $428.63 and a 200-day moving average of $362.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. F5 has a 1-year low of $223.76 and a 1-year high of $483.30.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.26 by $0.16. F5 had a return on equity of 21.00% and a net margin of 21.14%. The business had revenue of $917.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $884.03 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $4.39 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that F5 will post 14.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Tuesday, October 27th that permits the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CTO Michael F. Montoya sold 4,426 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $410.16, for a total transaction of $1,815,368.16. Following the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 1,309 shares in the company, valued at $536,899.44. This trade represents a 77.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Kunal Anand sold 392 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $404.63, for a total value of $158,614.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 12,586 shares in the company, valued at $5,092,673.18. This represents a 3.02% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 12,829 shares of company stock worth $5,259,502 over the last 90 days. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Bell Investment Advisors Inc bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $49,000. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 373.1% in the 2nd quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 123 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 91.4% in the 1st quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 201 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 458.3% in the 3rd quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 201 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $89,000 after buying an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

More F5 News

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: F5 authorized an additional $1.5 billion share repurchase program, bringing total available buyback capacity to approximately $1.8 billion, or about 9% of its market value. The authorization could support earnings per share and provide demand for the stock following its sell-off. Share Buyback Program Announced by F5
• Positive Sentiment: F5 reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of approximately $917 million and adjusted earnings of $4.42 per share, exceeding analyst expectations. AI-related bookings surpassed $100 million and increased roughly 300% year over year, indicating continued demand for AI data-delivery solutions. F5 Beat on Revenue and Still Dropped
• Positive Sentiment: Technical analysts say the stock is now oversold after its recent decline, while upward earnings-estimate revisions could support a potential trend reversal. Morgan Stanley, Barclays and RBC also raised their price targets or maintained a constructive outlook. F5 May See a Trend Reversal
• Positive Sentiment: F5 and Oracle announced a collaboration focused on strengthening application security for AI-era workloads, potentially improving F5’s enterprise and cloud-security opportunities. F5 and Oracle Collaborate

F5 Company Profile

F5, Inc (NASDAQ: FFIV) provides application delivery, security and traffic management solutions for enterprises, service providers and public-sector organizations. Its offerings are designed to help customers secure, optimize and manage applications and application programming interfaces (APIs) across data centers, private and public clouds, and edge environments.

The company’s portfolio includes BIG-IP software and appliances, NGINX application delivery and web server technologies, and F5 Distributed Cloud services.